It's fairly common to make last-minute changes to PowerPoint presentations. You can think of something on the train home, out at lunch, or when your manager calls with a new sales figure or just one last thing to change. Fortunately, Quickoffice Pro ($14.99 from the App Store) enables you to edit PowerPoint slides on your iPhone.

The screen real estate of the iPhone isn't ideal for editing, but Quickoffice Pro can do the job in a pinch so that you can walk into your next presentation with the most accurate data or having fixed that dreaded typo.

Sign up for our Smartphones newsletter!

Accessing presentations in Quickoffice Pro

You can get presentations on your iPhone by opening them using Quickoffice Pro from a cloud service like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Huddle, SugarSync, and even email. After you've purchased and installed Quickoffice on your iPhone, here's how to setup your cloud storage:

Tap Quickoffice Pro

Tap Add Account

On the Services screen, tap on the cloud service you want to access from Quickoffice Pro

Enter your account information

Tap Save, and the newly connected cloud service will appear on the Quickoffice Pro main screen

Open a PowerPoint presentation

To open a PowerPoint presentation:

When you tap Quickoffice Pro to open the application, you'll see a screen similar to Figure A

Figure A

Getting started with Quickoffice Pro.

Select the location where your presentation resides

Tap your presentation to open it (Figure B shows an example of a PowerPoint presentation open on an iPhone screen)

Figure B

A PowerPoint slide in PowerPoint Editor.

Rearrange slides

Here's how to rearrange slides for your presentation in Quickoffice Pro:

Open your presentation in Quickoffice Pro

You can see a filmstrip preview of the slide order at the bottom of the screen, so simply tap and hold down the slide you want to move

Move the slide to the new location

Release the slide, and it will now appear in its new location

Delete slides

Tap on a slide in the filmstrip, and then tap on the X in the right corner to delete it.

Editing PowerPoint presentations

Quickoffice Pro includes the PowerPoint Editor, which has the basic features you need for last-minute PowerPoint slide edits.

To edit text on a slide:

Advance to the slide that includes the text you want to edit

When you tap on the text you want to edit, you'll see grab points appear around the text block (Figure C)

Figure C

PowerPoint slide ready to edit using Quickoffice Pro.

Tap inside the selected block near the text you want to edit, and your cursor will appear

Tap the Keyboard icon to bring your keyboard up

You have two navigation options:

Use the keyboard just as you would when typing an email or text message on your iPhone

For pinpoint edits, tap behind the text you want to edit, then tap on the text, and tap cut. You can then type in the new text

When you're finished, tap Done

You can also modify text formatting:

Tap the text icon (left-most icon on the menu), and the text formatting options will appear at the bottom of the screen

Select and apply the text formatting options as required by choosing the text and tapping the formatting option

Figure D

Format slide text.

Modify images

Quickoffice Pro doesn't have an image editor. However, it does let you delete existing images and even insert new images from your iPhone. If you frequently use images in your PowerPoint slide decks, then you may appreciate this capability.

Delete an image

To delete an image:

Advance to the slide that includes the image you want to delete

When you tap the image you want to delete, you'll see grab points appear around it (Figure D)

Figure E

Deleting an image requires two taps, about a second apart.

Pause about a second, tap the select image once more, and a Delete button will appear (Note: The second tap can sometimes be tricky, so it might require some practice)

Tap Delete to delete the image

Insert a new image

To insert a new image:

Tap the Image icon (second to the far left) to open the insert image/shape toolbox

Tap Images to open the Insert Image menu

From the Insert Image menu (Figure F), select whether you want to insert images from On iPhone (images are in your Quickoffice directory) or My Photos (your iPhone's camera roll). Quickoffice Pro doesn't yet support images from Dropbox or other cloud services. Make sure any extra images you have make it onto your iPhone.

Figure F

Insert images from My Photos or Quickoffice Pro.

Navigate to the folder where the image you want to insert resides

Tap on the preview of the image you want to insert

Edit PowerPoint presentations on the go

Sometimes last-minute changes come in that have to be dealt with, and Quickoffice Pro on your iPhone means you are always ready to tackle changes or brainstorm on your next presentation while away from a PC. Do you use Quickoffice Pro on your iPhone? Share your experience in the discussion thread below.

About Will Kelly

Will Kelly is a freelance technical writer and analyst currently focusing on enterprise mobility, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and the consumerization of IT. He has also written about cloud computing, Big Data, virtualization, project management ap...

Full Bio

Will Kelly is a freelance technical writer and analyst currently focusing on enterprise mobility, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and the consumerization of IT. He has also written about cloud computing, Big Data, virtualization, project management applications, Google Apps, Microsoft technologies, and online collaboration for TechRepublic and other sites. Will also works as a contract technical writer for clients in the Washington, DC area and nationwide. Follow Will on Twitter: @willkelly.